How Unethical Games Jeopardize a Gamer’s Health

Unethical games, as defined by the “Red Flags” in the code, can pose significant risks to a player’s health, which extends beyond the physical to include mental, emotional, and financial well-being.

• Mental and Emotional Health: This is the most significant area of jeopardy. Games with Predatory Monetization schemes, like gambling-like loot boxes, can lead to genuine behavioral addiction, recognized by the World Health Organization as “Gaming Disorder.”¹ This can cause severe anxiety, depression, and financial stress when players spend more than they can afford.² Furthermore, games that Foster Toxicity by design expose players to constant harassment, bullying, and hate speech. This is not just “part of the game”; it’s a direct cause of stress, social anxiety, and can severely damage a person’s self-esteem, turning a hobby that should be fun into a source of emotional pain.
• Social Health and Perception: Games that Promote Harmful Stereotypes damage the social fabric. For players who see their identities mocked or misrepresented, it can be deeply alienating and harmful to their sense of self-worth. For other players, it normalizes prejudice and can desensitize them to the harm these stereotypes cause in the real world. Similarly, the constant Glorification of Senseless Violence can desensitize players to aggression, potentially eroding empathy and normalizing conflict as a primary solution.
• Financial Health: This is directly attacked by Predatory Monetization. These systems are often designed to exploit psychological triggers, encouraging impulsive and repetitive spending.³ For many players, especially younger ones, this can lead to significant debt, family conflict, and long-term financial hardship, all for the sake of digital items with no real-world value.⁴

The Developer’s Moral Responsibility to Society

Given these potential harms, game developers have a profound moral responsibility to society that goes beyond simply creating an entertaining product.

1. Architects of Digital Worlds: Developers are no longer just making games; they are building persistent social spaces where millions of people live out significant portions of their lives. Just as an architect has a moral and professional duty to ensure a building is safe and won’t collapse on its occupants, a game developer has a duty to ensure their digital worlds are not psychologically or socially toxic by design.
2. Power and Influence: The video game industry is one of the most powerful cultural forces on the planet, shaping the attitudes and social norms of billions, including many children and vulnerable adolescents.⁵ With this immense influence comes the responsibility to not knowingly create products that exploit psychological vulnerabilities (predatory monetization), promote prejudice (stereotypes), or create environments rife with harassment.
3. Duty of Care to Consumers: A core principle of any professional field—including law, which you’ll be entering soon, Temir—is a duty of care to the client or consumer. In gaming, this means not intentionally designing systems that are addictive or exploitative for profit. To put a gambling-like mechanic in a game played by children, for instance, is a clear violation of this duty of care. Society grants developers the privilege to create and sell these influential products; in return, it expects them not to cause deliberate harm.

Ethical Gaming Quality Mark

The Ethical Gaming Quality Mark is a proposed certification awarded to video games that successfully adhere to the highest standards of responsible design and player respect. To earn this distinction, a game would be assessed against the principles of the Developer’s Code, demonstrating that it is rich in ‘Green Flag’ attributes—such as promoting pro-social behavior, fostering creativity, and ensuring fair, skill-based competition. Crucially, a certified game must be entirely free from ‘Red Flag’ elements, meaning it does not glorify senseless violence, engage in predatory monetization, promote harmful stereotypes, or have a design that inherently fosters a toxic community. This mark would serve as a clear and reliable signal for consumers, allowing them to easily identify and support games that contribute positively to the industry and provide a respectful, enriching player experience.

This code of conduct provides a framework for video game developers to assess the ethical standing of their projects. It is designed to be used as a self-assessment tool throughout the development lifecycle, from concept to post-launch support, to help create games that are not only successful but also respectful of players and conducive to positive communities.

The Three Classifications

A game’s ethical standing can be understood through three primary classifications, determined by the balance of its design choices and content.

• Ethical: These games are designed with a clear focus on positive player experience. They actively promote pro-social behavior, creativity, or skill, and are free from predatory or harmful elements. They contribute positively to the gaming ecosystem.
• Unethical: These games contain core mechanics or content that are exploitative, discriminatory, or that glorify harmful behaviors without critique. Their design has a high potential to cause harm to players or foster a negative community environment.
• Mixed: These games contain a combination of both ethical and unethical elements. While they may have positive qualities, such as promoting teamwork or skill, they are also weighed down by significant ethical concerns, such as predatory monetization or a failure to curb toxicity. Games in this category have clear areas for improvement.

Core Rules for Assessment

To classify a game, evaluate it against the following principles. The presence and weight of these attributes determine the final classification.

Part 1: Unethical Attributes (Red Flags)

These are elements that significantly detract from a game’s ethical standing. A game with multiple red flags is likely Unethical or, at best, Mixed.

1. Glorification of Senseless Violence: Does the game reward players for committing graphic, realistic, or cruel acts of violence without consequence or critical reflection? Is violence the primary answer to most problems presented?
2. Predatory Monetization: Does the game’s business model rely on mechanics that exploit player psychology? This includes pay-to-win systems that offer significant competitive advantages for money, and gambling-like mechanics such as opaque loot boxes.
3. Promotion of Harmful Stereotypes: Does the game feature content that reinforces negative, derogatory, or harmful stereotypes related to race, gender, sexual orientation, religion, disability, or other identity groups?
4. Inherent Fostering of Toxicity: Is the game designed in a way that encourages or fails to mitigate toxic behavior? This can include systems that promote griefing, a lack of effective moderation tools, or ranking systems that incentivize harassment.

Part 2: Ethical Attributes (Green Flags)

These are elements that contribute positively to a game’s ethical standing. A game rich in green flags and free of red flags is likely Ethical.

1. Promotion of Pro-Social Behavior: Does the game actively encourage and reward cooperation, teamwork, empathy, and positive communication between players?
2. Fostering of Creativity or Education: Does the game provide players with tools for creative expression (building, designing, writing) or does it effectively teach valuable knowledge or skills?
3. Emphasis on Skill and Fair Competition: Is success in the game primarily determined by player skill, strategy, and dedication? Is the field of play fair and free from unearned advantages?
4. Inclusive and Respectful Representation: Does the game feature a diverse cast of characters who are portrayed with depth, respect, and authenticity? Does it create a welcoming environment for players from all backgrounds?
5. Inclusion of Meaningful Moral Choices: Does the game present players with complex ethical dilemmas where choices have tangible, reflective consequences on the world and its characters?

How to Apply the Code

To use this guide, honestly assess your project against these rules.

• If your design document is full of Green Flags and actively avoids Red Flags, you are on track to create an Ethical game.
• If your game relies on one or more Red Flags as core pillars of its design, it risks being classified as Unethical. This is a critical moment to re-evaluate those design choices.
• If your game features a mix, such as strong pro-social gameplay but also a reliance on predatory monetization, it is Mixed. Identify the Red Flags and treat them as urgent priorities to fix, transforming your game into a more ethical product.

A Framework for Ethical Gaming: From Gratuitous Violence to Pro-Social Play

In an era where video games are a dominant cultural force, the ethical implications of their content and design warrant critical examination. Moving beyond a simplistic binary of “violent” versus “non-violent,” a more nuanced framework is necessary to evaluate the ethical landscape of interactive entertainment. This framework can empower consumers to make informed choices and encourage developers to create more responsible and enriching experiences.

Criteria for Ethical and Unethical Video Games

To ethically assess a video game, we must look beyond surface-level mechanics and consider the underlying values it promotes, the behaviors it encourages, and its impact on players and society.

Unethical Game Characteristics:

• Glorification of Senseless Violence: Games that reward players for committing acts of graphic, realistic violence against human or human-like characters without exploring consequences or offering alternative approaches. The primary gameplay loop centers on killing for sport or pleasure.
• Promotion of Harmful Stereotypes: Content that reinforces negative stereotypes related to race, gender, ethnicity, sexual orientation, disability, or religion. This includes misrepresentation that can lead to real-world prejudice.
• Predatory Monetization: The inclusion of gambling-like mechanics (e.g., loot boxes with uncertain rewards) and “pay-to-win” models that create significant gameplay advantages for those who spend more money, fostering an uneven playing field and potentially leading to addictive spending habits.
• Cultivation of Toxic Communities: A lack of robust moderation and community management tools that allows for the proliferation of hate speech, harassment, and bullying among players.
• Narratives That Trivialize Immorality: Storylines that present unethical actions such as torture, terrorism, or sexual violence in a positive or flippant light, without a critical perspective or exploration of their impact.

Ethical Game Characteristics:

• Pro-Social Gameplay: Games that actively encourage cooperation, empathy, communication, and teamwork to achieve common goals.
• Meaningful Choices and Consequences: Narrative-driven games that present players with complex moral dilemmas and where choices have a tangible impact on the story and its characters, prompting ethical reflection.
• Inclusivity and Positive Representation: The presence of a diverse cast of characters that are well-developed and respectfully portrayed, promoting a sense of belonging for all players.
• Skill-Based Challenges and Fair Competition: Gameplay that is challenging yet fair, where success is determined by a player’s skill, strategy, and dedication rather than their willingness to spend money.
• Creative Expression and Problem-Solving: Games that provide players with tools to create, explore, and solve problems in innovative ways, fostering creativity and critical thinking.
• Educational and Empathetic Storytelling: Experiences that allow players to step into the shoes of others, learn about different cultures, historical events, or social issues from a new perspective.

A Call to Action for Game Makers: The Future is Ethical

The video game industry stands at a crossroads. With unparalleled potential to inspire, connect, and entertain, there is also a profound responsibility to consider the ethical impact of the worlds you create. We, the players, urge you to champion ethical game design not as a limitation, but as a catalyst for innovation.

Move beyond the well-trodden paths of gratuitous violence and predatory monetization. Instead, invest in narratives that challenge us, in mechanics that foster collaboration, and in communities that are safe and inclusive for all. The most memorable and impactful games are not those that simply shock, but those that make us think, feel, and grow. By prioritizing ethical considerations, you will not only cultivate a more positive and respectful gaming culture but also unlock new frontiers of interactive storytelling and design that will define the future of the medium.

Ethical Evaluation of Popular Games on Xbox, Nintendo Switch, and PlayStation

The following table assesses the 10 most popular games on each major console based on the ethical criteria outlined above. This evaluation is based on publicly available information regarding gameplay and monetization models as of June 2025.

Xbox

Game	Ethical Classification	Justification
Call of Duty Series	Unethical	Core gameplay loop centers on realistic, graphic violence with a competitive focus. While teamwork is present, the glorification of warfare is a primary theme.
Fortnite	Mixed	Features cartoonish violence and strong pro-social elements like teamwork and creative building. However, its business model heavily relies on microtransactions.
Minecraft	Ethical	Promotes creativity, collaboration, and problem-solving with no inherent violence. Monetization is primarily cosmetic.
Grand Theft Auto V	Unethical	Glorifies a criminal lifestyle, including violence, theft, and other illicit activities without significant moral reflection. Online mode can foster a toxic environment.
Roblox	Mixed	A platform for user-generated content that can be highly creative and pro-social. However, it has faced criticism for its monetization practices and the potential for inappropriate content.
Tom Clancy’s Rainbow Six Siege	Mixed	A tactical shooter that emphasizes teamwork and strategy over senseless violence. However, the core gameplay is still centered on lethal combat.
Rocket League	Ethical	A skill-based competitive sports game with no violence. Promotes teamwork and fair competition. Monetization is primarily cosmetic.
Apex Legends	Mixed	A team-based shooter with a diverse cast of characters. While the violence is less graphic than some competitors, the core gameplay is still a battle royale. Features loot boxes.
EA Sports FC Series	Ethical	A sports simulation that promotes competition and strategy in a non-violent context. Monetization can be aggressive but is not pay-to-win in its core gameplay.
Forza Horizon 5	Ethical	A racing game that encourages exploration, skill-based driving, and creativity. Competition is non-violent.

Nintendo Switch

Game	Ethical Classification	Justification
Fortnite	Mixed	Features cartoonish violence and strong pro-social elements. Business model relies heavily on microtransactions.
Minecraft	Ethical	Promotes creativity, collaboration, and problem-solving with no inherent violence.
Mario Kart 8 Deluxe	Ethical	A fun, competitive racing game with cartoonish, non-graphic “violence.” Promotes friendly competition.
The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom	Ethical	An adventure game focused on exploration, puzzle-solving, and a narrative of heroism. Combat is present but not the sole focus.
Super Smash Bros. Ultimate	Mixed	A fighting game with cartoonish violence. While competitive, it lacks graphic content and promotes skill-based play.
Animal Crossing: New Horizons	Ethical	A life-simulation game that encourages creativity, community building, and pro-social interactions.
Nintendo Switch Sports	Ethical	A collection of sports mini-games that promote physical activity and friendly competition.
Pokémon Scarlet & Violet	Ethical	A role-playing game centered on collection, strategy, and exploration. “Battles” are non-graphic and framed as sport.
Splatoon 3	Ethical	A team-based shooter where the objective is to cover the map in ink rather than eliminate opponents. Violence is highly stylized and non-lethal.
Super Mario Odyssey	Ethical	A platforming adventure game focused on exploration, puzzle-solving, and creativity.

PlayStation

Game	Ethical Classification	Justification
Fortnite	Mixed	Features cartoonish violence and strong pro-social elements. Business model relies heavily on microtransactions.
Call of Duty Series	Unethical	Core gameplay loop centers on realistic, graphic violence with a competitive focus. Glorification of warfare is a primary theme.
Grand Theft Auto V	Unethical	Glorifies a criminal lifestyle, including violence, theft, and other illicit activities without significant moral reflection.
Minecraft	Ethical	Promotes creativity, collaboration, and problem-solving with no inherent violence.
Roblox	Mixed	A platform for user-generated content. Can be highly creative but has faced criticism for its monetization and potential for inappropriate content.
Rocket League	Ethical	A skill-based competitive sports game with no violence. Promotes teamwork and fair competition.
EA Sports FC Series	Ethical	A sports simulation that promotes competition and strategy in a non-violent context.
Apex Legends	Mixed	A team-based shooter with a diverse cast of characters. While the violence is less graphic, the core gameplay is a battle royale. Features loot boxes.
Marvel’s Spider-Man 2	Ethical	An action-adventure game with a strong moral compass. The narrative focuses on heroism, responsibility, and protecting civilians. Combat is present but not glorified.
God of War Ragnarök	Mixed	While featuring graphic violence, the game’s narrative is a mature exploration of fatherhood, consequence, and breaking cycles of violence. It does not glorify the violence it portrays.